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Thursday, 13 September 2012

The goal of marketing

Convincing
your customers to bring you the gold

Everyone
knows what the goal of marketing is, right? At least, we think we do. But how
many of us are right? Is it about casting your company in the best light? Promoting
your product? Gaining new customers? Keeping old ones? Or driving sales?

One of the world’s most popular marketing books describes it
as "the process by which companies create value for customers and build
strong customer relationships, in order to capture value from customers in
return".

That
sounds great in jargon-speak. But let’s put it in simpler terms. Imagine an
island of gold. You (and your
competitors) have a problem. You’re not on the island. You’re staring at it from
across the sea.

How
do you get at it? Well, a lot depends on which kind of business you run. If
you’re sales-focused, you’ll round up a team of self-starters and row madly,
fighting the currents and winds as hard as you possibly can.

If
you’re product-focused, you might watch the brawny guys battle and laugh.
Surely there’s a better way. What if you designed a better boat? Or gave it an
engine? Wouldn’t you get to the gold faster?

A
market-focused company would be more concerned with taking advantage of
prevailing conditions. What are the wind conditions? What if you harnessed the
power of the current?

The
real answer, of course, is that all these approaches have merit. But what makes
the marketing-savvy company special is that it’s not just about aiming for the
gold. It’s also about making the gold aim for you. The real goal of marketing
is to create desire, by building a brand that people want – and then making a
noise about it.

So
instead of struggling all the way across to the island of gold, the smart
businesses attracts its markets – and then only has to meet them half way.